I knew you'd come back
by Mad Steph
Summary: Post season 5. Juliet/James.
1. Chapter 1

She had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

She had thought about this moment for even longer than that, she had carefully played out every single possible scenario of how this moment could go in her head –over and over again, the good, the bad, the very good the very bad.

She had given up hope that this moment would ever actually come. She had resigned herself to the thought that it would probably remain a dream, an unreachable fantasy that she would only ever be able to graze with the tips of her fingers during her imagination.

She doesn't remember when she had actually lost hope. Was it when Ben had told her she could never leave until she had solved the pregnancy problem? Was it when Ben had told her that she was his? Was it when the submarine blew up, right before her eyes? Was it when she saw the freighter go up in flames from the beach? Was it when she realised she was travelling through time? Was it when she found out she was stuck in the seventies, and there was nothing she could do about it? Was it when she was lying down in the bottom of that pit, desperately trying to set a nuclear bomb off? Or during the course of the event that had taken place after that?

No, the answer was none of those times, but rather all of those times.

Arriving on the island had set the process in motion, but it was every single one of those events that slowly started to wear away the person she used to be, in favour of the person she was becoming.

At the time she had not been sure that she actually liked this new Juliet, a woman who lied, deceived, cheated, and murdered. This new version of her was light-years away from the person she had been in the 'real world', whatever that was supposed to be.

It frightened her slightly to think that in almost a blink of the eye she could go from being the shy and timid little mouse of a person, who hid behind furniture to not disturb her ex husband and his latest female conquest, to the woman who willingly pursued and illicit affair with a married man.

Adultery. How could she take another woman's husband to bed and still look at herself in the face without feeling nauseous? Especially since she knew exactly how it felt to be in that woman's shoes, and she remembered just how much she hated it, just how powerless, humiliated and insignificant she felt.

No, normal people don't change that drastically. It was the island; it had to be the island.

The truth was that she had ended up accepting this new individual she had become. After all, in all objectivity, she didn't only have negative sides. She was a strong and determined woman, who didn't put up with bullshit, whereas pre-island Juliet had been a weak wallflower, who when someone hurt her just turned the other cheek.

When everything was over, only a couple of them were left standing amongst what felt like an ocean of corpses –the bodies of people they had known, people they had cared for. They had just stood there for a while, not quite sure of what they were supposed to do now, not quite sure of what was expected of them now.

When the night had fallen, Richard Alpert and a man dressed in a white tunic had appeared out of the woods. The man hovered in the background while Richard spoke. Apparently it was time for them to leave, to get off the island, they had done what they had been brought here to do, they were not needed anymore, they were being dismissed. Just like that.

Juliet couldn't believe what she was hearing. Really? Okay, you killed a dozen or something people for us, saved the island, thank you, goodbye. This couldn't be for real.

She look over at him, her eyes full of scepticism, he half smiled and reached out for her hand.

The five of them scrambled through the jungle behind Alpert and his buddy –who had yet to utter a single syllable. Their eyes shifted uneasily to the right and too the left, hoping that nothing would jump out at them, but half expecting that it would.

By dawn they had reached the orchid.

Richard nodded towards the other man who led them down into the belly of the station, down even further in the ground, down to the heart of the island. He positioned them all carefully around the donkey wheel which was half sticking out the wall –for god knows what purpose, and motioned them to push. And they pushed.

The next thing they knew, they were somewhere in the middle of a desert.

They weren't sure which way to go, it was double or nothing, either they would stumble blindly through the dunes and miraculously happen to fall upon a village, an oasis, any form of civilisation, or they would roam endlessly through the endless mounts of sand until they died of thirst.

It was then that Ben spoke the first words they had shared since the bloodbath, "We're in the Sahara."

"I've done this once before," he explained. "We have to go north. We have to go north if we want to survive."

So they went north.

Ben and the two others were walking up front; James and Juliet trailing a little behind.

"What if I can't do it?" she asked him.

"Do what?" He had returned the question.

She confessed that she was worried she wouldn't be able to adapt to a 'normal or a seemingly' normal lifestyle after what they had seen –what they had done. And what if she couldn't? What if she couldn't go back to working 9-5 in a lab, in the 2000s? What would happen then?

Six or was it seven years now (she had lost all notion of time) was a long time to be gone for, a long time to make up.

For a while, he remained silent, pondered as they kept on walking, they couldn't afford to lose sight of Ben and co and get lost. He rested his hand on the small of her back and said softly, "I don't matter either way, we're in this together, forever, I got your back always. You know that, right?"

"If I didn't before, I sure do now," she smiled and fondly kissed his cheek. And how could she doubt him anymore? She had seen him torn in half with anguish and distress when he had thought he was going to lose her forever. She had witnessed his eyes beamed with unconcealed joy and happiness when she had walked out that jungle almost intact after the bomb had went off. And most importantly, how could she ever doubt his devotion and love for her after what he had done a couple of days ago to save her life? She would have been dead if he hadn't pushed her out of the way of that flaming arrow, abandoning his sniper position, leaving Kate a vulnerable and exposed target for the enemy, ultimately resulting in her demise.

If Juliet had been a sadistic bitch, she would have thought an arrow right through her heart was an appropriate death for the woman who had broken so many in the course of her existence. But Juliet wasn't evil, and Kate was on their side, her loss was what it was –a loss. And part of her was very sorry about it.

They finally set foot in a little Bedouin village. The locals looked at them as if they were aliens from outer space, well, in a certain sense, they were aliens.

They were informed that there was a daily bus which would take them straight to Gabès, from where they could take a boat to Djerba, where they would surely be able to catch a plane to literally any major European city. They were in luck, the bus hadn't been and gone yet.

Someone raised the question of how they were possibly going to raise the sufficient funds to finance this little road/boat/plane trip along the Mediterranean coast. Hurley was quick to brush off that worry with a "Dudes, don't worry, I got that part covered."

It thrilled Hurley that he was finally going to be useful for something, Juliet could see the jubilation oozing out of him. Poor guy had felt as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike during the entire war.

"No Hugo, you can't go, it's too dangerous." "Hugo, we need you hear to make our food. If you get killed, we'll just die of starvation." Juliet knew that James just didn't want Hurley to get hurt, but she also understood how frustrating, and tiresome it must have been for the other man. She was glad he was finally getting his moment to shine.

And true enough, the man made a couple of quick phone calls and BAM, they would have cash waiting for them when they got to Gabès. In the meantime, Ben had managed to rummage through a stash he apparently kept in the village ~just in case, and had come up with enough dinars to get them on the bus, on the road to the rest of their lives.

They all parted ways at the airport in Djerba.

Ben disappeared without telling anyone, not that anyone really minded.

Hugo was taking the first flight out that would get him to Los Angeles the fastest possible.

Jack. Well Jack headed straight to the bar and ordered a double whiskey, no ice. Good habits die hard.

And James and Juliet were left staring at the departure board. Where to go from here? Paris? Milan? Amsterdam? And then from there? The possibilities were limitless.

Hurley had left them with enough money to allow them to set sail off to Tahiti and spend the rest of their life there. Not that they were really keen on renewing the whole tropical island experience just yet.

"I guess Amsterdam or Paris would be the best choices," he commented, as he pulled her body closer to him. They had been through so much together, she could no longer bear imagining her life without him by her side.

"Why's that?"

"Figured they're the most likely to have speedy flights straight to Miami?" he said.

"Miami?" she almost gasped, a hint of horror clearly detectable in her tone.

"Yeah," he turned around and looked at her in the eyes. "I promised you, years ago now, that I would get you back to your sister. And I intend on making good on that promise, and as they say … no time like the present."

"James," she murmured. "I don't know if I can." He looked at her, his eyes full of questions. "What if she doesn't want to see me? What if she thinks I'm dead? What …"

He silenced her by pulling her into his arms to comfort her, "I'm sure Rachel will be overjoyed to see you. But in the event that things don't go so smoothly, allow I'm willing to bet that they will, I'll be there."

And so it was decided. They were off to Miami.

That is how she found herself in front of her sister's front door, it had been six years and eleven months (she checked) since the last time she had stood in that exact same spot. Nothing had really changed, or had it? The door was a different colour, less red, more burgundy, the flowers on the window sill weren't camellias, like they had been all those years ago, but begonias.

She glanced back a James, who was leaning against the little car they had rented, for strength, he urged her on. She could do this.

She had been waiting for so long to do this.

She knocked.

And waited.

How ironic, six years and eleven months on a desert island and she chooses to make her big return while Rachel is out. She gave James a defeated glance, he walked over to her and put an arm around her and whispered, "We can wait, or we can come back later, your call."

They were just about to turn away when they heard shuffling behind the door.

The door opened revealing a more than frazzled Rachel.

Rachel looked straight at Juliet, then James, then back to Juliet. It looked as if her brain was trying to process the sight before her eyes, but he face finally broke into a smile, and Juliet sighed of relief.

"I knew you'd come back," Rachel said, wiping a tear of happiness from the corner of her eye and pulling Juliet into her embrace. "I just knew it."

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THE END

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**A/N:** I got bored with everything law, so I opened a fresh word document and let my mind wander a little bit.

I know I owe some people some smut, but I also owed a couple of people a Rach/Jules reunion fic, and here it is, not quite a reunion exactly, but they're together again.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** To whoever told me that they wouldn't mind to see a "Part II" to this story … -__-

By the way, I'm not dead. I was juggling 40 hours of classes per week, not counting homework, hence my little 'absence' in the writing and reviewing department.

Anyway, I'm on Christmas break now, (and even though I have all my January finals to study for) I'm adamant on making the most of it!

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If she had been completely terrified about not being able to fit back into the 'real world', he, on the other hand, had been worried that she would, in fact, ease back into her pre-island life too quickly.

It's not that he didn't want her to be happy, he did with all his heart. He wanted her to reunite with her sister, catch up with everything she missed during the six years she spent on Craphole Island, but he was afraid he would be left behind in the process.

Because honestly, their couple might have made sense in Dharmaville, in the seventies, but he was kidding himself if he thought he'd have a chance with a woman like her in this decade.

No, in Dhama he might have been a respectable man, head of security, Jim LaFleur, but over here, in real life, he was a lowlife conman, Sawyer, a pathetic loser who had never been able to hold down a half honest job.

Eventually she would realise just how little of her time he was worth, she had to, and then what would he do? He had nobody. No friends. No family. No nothing.

He supposed he had Hugo, the big guy would welcome him with open arms, but that's not what he wanted, not what he needed out of life anymore.

He wanted her. Her and nobody else, it was clear in his mind now.

There had been no hesitation in his head this time round when he left his sniper position to push her out of the way of a flaming arrow, leaving Kate uncovered. True, he had been shocked when he saw Kate crumble to the ground, a bullet had ripped through her chest, but deep down he had been relieved. Glad that his Juliet was safe in his arms.

The Doc was quick to get to Kate though, assessing her injury, he was frantic, yelling at everyone around him to bring him clothes, to press down, to stop the bleeding, to help him, he was losing her. He had never seen Jack this panicked and disoriented, he was a mess, probably comparable to the state he was in when Juliet had fallen down the hole at the Swan site.

He had felt for the man, he really had, but the fight was still on-going, and if they wanted to win, they had to stay focused in the battle. Their lives depended on it.

When he had seen Jack head off to the bar as soon as they had set foot in Djerba airport, for a brief instant, he had wanted to talk him out of drowning his sorrows in booze, but he had held back. If the situations had been reversed, and God only knows how close things were to going that way, he would be in the same state of mind. The man was better left alone. He would come round, eventually, maybe.

Instead, he had focused on Juliet, and getting her back to Miami, to see her sister, to fulfil that promise he had made to her years ago. They had been in Dharmaville for ten days, her two week stay was coming to an end. She had already starting packing the few things she called her belongings and for some reason it was making him nauseous. As if he couldn't stand her leaving, losing another one of his people, again, so soon. He didn't want to ask her to stay again, instead he tried reasoning with her. What was the point in going back now? In 1974?

Using the exact same arguments he had used on the dock again, but adding a little extra "your actions make no sense, woman" to them.

He could see that he was, in fact, getting to her, he could see that beneath the perpetually cool mask she liked to maintain, there was a fire of anger and frustration burning up inside.

"Why do you want me to stay so much?" she had finally spat out, exasperated by him.

"Why do you want to go so bad?" he had countered.

It was then, exactly then that he saw the true Juliet for the first time. Not the hardcore, taser wielding, rifle shooting, half-jedi bitch, who could put you down with one sharp ice cold glare, and whom he had been secretly terrified of since he first saw her, but the vulnerable, broken and broken hearted Juliet, the one who had seen her hopes and dreams dangled mercilessly in front of her before they were snatched away again.

Tears had started streaming uncontrollably down her cheeks, there was nothing she could do to stop them, "Don't you understand," she had stammered. "I have to leave, I have to go. I don't want to die here. I can't die here."

He had never felt the urge to comfort another human being so much in his life, he found it 'jaw dropping-ly' stunning that such a strong unemotional woman could break down in such a dramatic way. He put a hand on her shoulder, as he whispered, "Hey, it'll be alright."

The friendly hand on her shoulder morphed into an arm snaked around her back, and before he had both arms wrapped around her, stroking the back of her hair.

It was an odd feeling, not just in the sense that he wasn't known to be the kind of guy who would just hold a chick until she felt better, but odd in the way that it felt right, that he didn't feel out of place.

It was at that moment that he started falling for her, he thinks.

When she finally calmed down, he was almost certain that she would retreat into her protection shell once again, and would act as if nothing had happened.

Instead she sat down calmly, her eyes slightly red, her cheeks flushed and started telling him her story –about her sister, her ex-husband, Mittelos-the bogus science company that brought her to the island, Ben, Goodwin, not being able to leave. Everything. She told him everything.

And he sat there, listening to her, amazed and dumbfounded at the same time by what she had accomplished, what she had been put through, what she had lost.

So he took her hands in his and promised, "I'll get you back to your sister, I swear I will, just stick with me, Blondie, I got your back."

So here he was, three years down the road, finally fulfilling his promise.

As he sat on the bed in the guest bedroom of Rachel's little Miami Beach house, he wondered if it was all over, if this was how Jules had felt on the day Jack and co. came back to the island.

Rachel had been overjoyed to be reunited with her baby sister, she had pulled her in the door and squeezed her in her arms so tight that James was worried Juliet might suffocate. Juliet was relieved to see her sister again, albeit, a little overwhelmed but content nonetheless.

Rachel had eyed James up and down suspiciously, unlike her sister, Rachel wasn't a pro at hiding what she was thinking. Juliet had introduced him, with a simple, "This is James", as she put her arm around his waist, as if it, he, them didn't require any further explanations.

Rachel had then insisted they stay in her spare bedroom, that there was no way she was letting 'her' Juliet out of her sight when she had only just found her again, even if they were only going to the motel ten minutes away, so he had feigned fatigue, to leave the sister some time to catch up, and went to lie down.

He could hear Rachel babbling to Juliet downstairs, he closed his eyes and tried to relax. He couldn't believe that they weren't on the island anymore.

He must have drifted off to sleep, because the next thing he heard was, "Hey."

Juliet was sitting on the bed by his side.

"You okay?" she asked concerned.

"Yeah," he replied as he sat up. "Where's Rachel?"

"Away to pick Julian up from school," she said. "Is it strange that I'm nervous about meeting a six year old for the first time? Because I kind of am."

He smiled at her lovingly, "I'm glad you finally got to come back here."

"So am I," she sighed, as she rested her head against his shoulder and they sat in silence for a while.

"Jules …"

"Yes?"

"Is this it?"

She snapped up, turned her body so that she was facing him and looked at him puzzled, "What do you mean?"

"You and I, are we over?" he asked, with a little too much anguish in his voice for his own liking.

"Why would you think that?" she asked quickly, she always spoke a little faster when she was feeling panicked or out of her element.

"On the island, it was one thing, but out here, in the 'real world', I'm not exactly your kind of guy …" he trailed off.

"Do you want it to be over?" she asked, trying to hide her worry behind seriousness.

"I don't want you to feel obligated towards me just because in some hippie alternate universe we were an item," he stated trying to hide his true feelings with a little humour.

"I don't feel obligated, James," she looked at him right in the eye. "And as for my kind of men, if I remember right, I didn't exactly have the time of my life when I was with men who fit into those criteria."

"But, Juliet, let's face the music here, you're a top notch fertility doctor, and I'm a useless conman," he stated flatly.

"No," she said. "That's who you were before."

"It doesn't matter," he interrupted. "I have no qualifications, no nothing, do you think anyone cares that I was head of security once upon a time in the seventies? Do you think anyone will even believe that I was? Who should I call up for a reference? Horace? Oh, no, that's right, he's dead."

The minute his words were out his mouth he regretted them, he regretted their harshness, she was looking at him with that lost look he hated so damn much, he didn't want to hurt her, ever. He looked away, ashamed of himself.

She gently put her hands around his face and forced him to look at her, "Listen," she said. "I don't care who you were before, we've both done things in the past that we're not proud of today. They don't matter anymore. The only thing that's important is who you are today, James. And I am proud of you, and I love you, and I don't care if you decide to go and work behind the counter at Burger King, or decide to go back to school, or decide to write a novel about a crazy island lost in the middle of the south Pacific where all sorts of twisted things happen. I don't care about any of that. All I care is that I'm with you, I can't be without you anymore, I don't want to be without you anymore, I can't face the world without you."

He could see the love and tenderness in her eyes, how could he have questioned what they had? His fears might have been legitimate, but they were unfounded. He loved her. She loved him. They loved each other. How easier than that could it be?

"I love you so much, Juliet. I don't ever want to lose you." Again, he had almost added.

"And you never will," she said softly as she kissed him.

They heard the front door open and close downstairs. He stood up and held out his hand for her to take, "C'mon, Blondie. Let's go and meet that nephew of yours."

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**THE END** (I think/hope)


End file.
